Thursday, May 19, 2011

weaning

i have loved (almost) every minute of breastfeeding. the first few weeks hurt a bit and spraying milk every which way got old, but mostly it has been amazing.

i can't believe we're almost to the year mark. i'm not sure i thought it'd be so easy to breastfeed so long, but it certainly has been. more and more in the last few weeks, i'm starting to wonder is meredith is getting ready to wean. particularly during the day, she doesn't seem terribly interested in nursing, at least not for longer than a few minutes. she still nurses a good amount at bed time and in the morning.

so, i'm looking for advice. what exactly do i do? just follow her lead? only feed her when she's acting very interested? sometimes i worry she will be hungry and not really act like it. but maybe that's just silly? i want to hear your thoughts!

post-edit: of course after writing this yesterday, meredith spent the evening and this morning clawing at my shirt, leaving more confused about where she and nursing stand.

5 comments:

i would just follow her lead! i saw over on your tweet bar "is it too late to get tomato seedlings in the ground". we dont plant anything outside until after may 30th (our frost date). i was thinking you are near boston (?) so it is definitely not too late! in fact, look at your 15 day forecast because it might even be too early!! :)

I'm right there with you - Elle is soooo easily distracted/not interested during most of her nursing sessions, and I'm really wondering how things will go in these next few months. I plan to breastfeed at least until one year, but I'd really, really, really like to stop pumping at that point, and I'm not sure how that will affect my supply. My plan for now is just to follow her lead - unless she seems to not be leading in any direction at all, and then I guess we'll re-evaluate :) I'm guessing we'll probably drop a session over time and then maybe just have the morning one for a while, but I'm really not sure.

Cameron weaned a little earlier than Meredith, but he was also being supplemented by bottle from 10 weeks when my milk supply tanked due to PCOS. I kept nursing him and bottle feeding him all the way until he was about 8 months. It was more a source of comfort for him around bed time and nap times than for nourishment at that point, but I wanted to follow his lead. There were days when I thought, "ok I think he's done" and then the next day he'd root at me after his bottle was finished and nursed. So I just kept saying I knew it was coming but just didn't know when. Then the day came not long later when he finished his bottle and turned into me to snuggle to sleep without signaling that he wanted to nurse. He still wanted to snuggle in the nook while I cradled him in my arms while he drifted off to sleep which I must admit was a huge relief for me because I felt like I was still getting our special time. We still do too :-)

I hope this helps some, although it may be a bit different with exclusively breastfeeding because he still gets his bottles. Do you plan to switch her to bottles/cup or where does she stand on that?

Arie self-weaned VERY early (10 months) and we had to work really hard to get milk into her diet because she had no interest in anything other than table food (she also had teeth very early too though so that might have added to it)....anyway with Idina my milk never came in and after 4 months of fighting it, we had to force wean her. It wasn't terribly traumatic for her (she moved to the bottle very easily and was just as happy and healthy as ever) but i found myself SUPER sad about it and even now can still sometimes get sad-whereas with Arie.....I just let her lead me and realized one day I hadn't nursed in two or three days. It was so natural and comforting to my mindset that I have never "wondered" about if I made the right decision or if she was ready. It just happened naturally. That is what I would let Meredith do :) Once you know she's stopped you will have to watch to make sure she's getting enough fluids and whatnot but for right now I would just enjoy those last few feedings and let nature take its course-you've got such an amazing bond with her already from a year of nursing, she'll take care of this part for you!! :)

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Hi! I'm Beaktweets!

Most people call me Claire, though. Married to my best friend. Mama to two cuties. Loving life in the San Francisco Bay Area. Spend my days playing outside, baking, doing laundry and trying to time two naps perfectly so I can get one myself.